Update: see Stowe’s updates and summary here
as posted to AdMarketing
Is anyone watching the press release debate between bloggers Chris Heuer and Stowe Boyd? Does anyone care?
Well, you should. The ‘kill or revise the press release’ debate has been going on for some time but seems to be picking up steam. At the moment, there’s an argument raging about last week’s Third Thursday SF event on new media press releases. I think that Chris supports revamping the press release through standards like Microformats. I think that Stowe is saying the press release is wrong and adding new media tools as window dressing won’t help. He is actually questioning “the outmoded thinking about PR and social media.”
newspapers and citizen journalism
WashPost had a great article on changes that newspapers, and others, are going through. The article details the well documented saga of consumer journalism and shrinking circulation.
The best part of the article though is the last lines:
On the other hand, none of the sources Myron dealt with in two assignments on consecutive days seemed to grasp that what he was reporting and writing about them would go to the News-Press Web site.
“They ask me, ‘When’s what you wrote about me going to be in the paper?’ ” Myron said. “I have no good answer.”
Are you being ignored?
Exact Target’s deliverability blog has a great post about the definition of Spam.
It’s always fun to listen to companies talk about permission. There are exceptions of course, (address appending for example) but permission is pretty black and white. The interesting part of the relationship comes into play when setting customer expectations.
I did tell CompUSA that I wanted ‘Special’ offers but I didn’t think they would come every few days! How much is to much? I guess it depends on the relationship… One sure bet is to let the reader know how often you’ll be communicating with them. We used to do this routinely when setting up e-mail broadcasts or lists.
On the other hand, much depends on the audience. It’s changing but many marketers seem to (still) impose direct marketing models on the Internet (vs building relationships!). Spamming Special Offers will offend and loose part of the list but mailers can still be ‘successful’.
At the end of the day, it is always about the relationship!